The CW may not officially been “Channel Teen Syfy” but with every pilot season it seems to be getting that way. Its latest round of pilot orders includes four new shows that are sci-fi or fantasy to some degree and one other that’s based on a comic-book franchise: Transylvania, No Tomorrow, Frequency, an unnamed Mars drama and Riverdale.

Frequency

Frequency is a remake of the 2000 film starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel about radio messages that travel through time. Supernatural showrunner Jeremy Carver, who will pen the pilot script about a female police detective in 2016 who discovers she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father (also a detective) who died in 1996. They forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the “butterfly effect” wreak havoc in the present day. The prolific Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream) is exec producer and he’ll be having a busy time in the next few months as he’s also behind two other pilots: ABC’s reboot of Time After Time (see here) and Fox’s Recon, which reteams him with The Vampire Diaries producers Julie Plec and Caroline Dries.

Transylvania is a period piece set in the 1880 about a headstrong young woman in search of her missing father who ventures from New York to Transylvania where she teams up with a disgraced Scotland Yard Detective. Together they witness the births of the most famous monsters and villains in history. Sounds like Penny Dreadful meets Grimm. It is written/executive produced by Hugh Sterbakov (Hell And Back).

No Tomorrow is comedy about a couple pursuing their bucket lists because they’re convinced the end of the world is imminent. It’s based on a Latin American show called How To Enjoy The End Of The World and is being written by Corinne Brinkerhoff who worked on The Good Wife.

The Unnamed Mars Project is a thriller about a team of explorers who arrive on Mars to join the first human colony on the planet, only to discover that their predecessors have vanished. Led by a woman whose husband is among the missing, the colonists are forced to change their mission from exploration and settlement to investigation and survival, while navigating the hostile planet and their own personal demons. The project is inspired by the story of The Lost Colony, the 16th century British settlement on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, whose inhabitants vanished without a trace, sparking a slew of theories about their fate. It has been written by Doris Egan (Reign) who also executive produces for Kennedy/Marshall Co.

Possibly least interesting for us here in the UK is Riverdale because it’s based on the comic universe that’s iconic in the States but has never really troubled the Zeitgeist over here. It’s being exec produced Greg Berlanti who has a track record producing a very different style of comic book show with the Arrowverse series. Based on the Archie Comics characters, it is apparently a subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends, exploring the surrealism of small town life — the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome façade.